Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This work examines the photochemistry of the lower troposphere for clean high latitudes in spring 2000 during the Tropospheric Ozone Production about the Spring Equinox (TOPSE) experiment.TOPSE measurements included the short-lived quantities [OH], [HO2] + [RO2], and [NO]/[NO2] as well as those slow varying ones that, according to photo-chemical theory, control them, e.g.[H2O], [O3], [NOx], [CO], temperature T, pressure p, and photolysis rate coefficients (J-values).We examine this control using a simple scaling equation, which we term local sensitivity function (LSF), to correlate simultaneous measurements: [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]where X = OH, HO2 + RO2, or NO/NO2 ratio, and the exponents α, β, γ, δ, ε, φ, and χ are estimated with box model.We first test this correlation using the output from a regional chemistry-transport model (CTM) and find a remarkable improvement in the correlation between X and the LSF, compared to correlations of X with any single parameter (e.g., J values).When using actual observations, the correlations for OH remain unchanged, those for HO2 + RO2 improve significantly, but the correlation of the observed NO/NO2 ratio with its LSF is sharply worse than simple correlations (e.g. vs. J value).This surprising result suggests that neither the box model nor the CTM are representing the chemistry of NO and NO2 correctly in the polar troposphere, and points to the importance of other reactions, e.g., BrO + NO → Br + NO2 and aerosol heterogeneous chemistry ones, that are not currently in the models.
Source: Croatica Chemica Acta
DOI: 10.5562/cca4143
Authors: Katja Džepina, Sasha Madronich
Institution: NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4411545884